Four fresh color patterns animate the celebrated Z-Man® ChatterBait® Pneumatic hammer™
It is no exaggeration to call the ChatterBait JackHammer blade lure the most popular bass lure in a generation. Tournament scores and 5-star angler reviews tell the story. Check out any online tackle retailer and sit back for hours of glowing reports, loads of monster bass photos attached for good measure. There is genuine emotion behind the fishermen’s words, the kind of language that can only come from epic days on the water. Check Rufus from Indiana, Trey from Texas, BankfishVince, Guy from Montreal, Git’r Dun from Guntersville. A lot of . . . The BEST blade jig on the market! I caught my PB! It’s worth every penny. When the blade stops hitting, set the hook! What more can I say? Actually, with four newly minted Pneumatic hammer color patterns, a lot.
Five years and God knows how many tournament wins and personal best bass have passed since Z-Man pro Brett Hite and Japanese bass legend Morizo Shimizu helped EverGreen International build the #1 JackHammer, outfitting it with the best carefully selected terminal rigs on the planet. The lure also inherited Z-Man’s patented head-to-blade connection and unique hex-shaped ChatterBlade®, two of the most underrated rigging innovations in the sport.
Soon the ChatterBait JackHammer became known as The only, Ambient Machine and even, unnamed sheet template by winning anglers of tournaments sponsored by other companies. By now, endless failed attempts to mimic its easy-start, vivid-vibe, hard-seeking, and bass-pulling attributes have only added to the JackHammer’s street cred.
Hite, the man behind the JackHammer, recently dove into the lure’s origins, divulging four new color patterns along the way. “The JackHammer is simply the Ferrari of bladed bass jigs,” says Hite, the bass pro from Phoenix, Arizona, who has made more than a million dollars on ChatterBaits alone.
“Everything about its design is high-end and ultra-refined,” he notes. “We have always insisted on raw and refined components, from the line to the tip of the hook. Like the sharpest Gamakatsu® heavy wire hook. A double wire tow gate that locks soft plastics firmly to the jig head. Even the line tie is tricked out: a high-quality Decoy® Egg Snap. Like I said, Ferrari,” Hite laughs.
Justifying the patented direct connection between the blade and the head of the lure, Hite explains the mechanics and the result. “No other bladed jig jumps and hunts so erratically on recovery,” he believes. “Also no lure starts vibrating that fast and hits the water with such intense vibrations that it attracts fish.
“Consider the lure’s flat bottom, low center of gravity head, and specialized channel slot for blade protection. Examine the hexagonal blade itself: its shape and slightly upturned edge, the thinness of the stainless steel, as well as its connection point with the eyelet, with no additional split ring or other novel solutions. Modify any of this critical engineering and you are left with a completely different lure that misses the target – the main reason anglers and big bass keep coming back to the JackHammer, tournament after tournament.”
Ready to churn up the water with four invigorated lure patterns, Hite explains the subtle appeal of each new set. “We build jack hammers using only the choicest silicone skirting threads, all hand-tied and the same color as the head and blade,” he explains. “These four super-charged patterns offer delicately different tones, each with the purpose of putting more bass in your boat.”
Fire Craw – Orange Leaf– Delivering the hottest hi-vis blade jig pack yet, this spooky pattern adds a deep orange speckled blade to a matching fluorescent orange head, edged with an optimal mix of reddish red threads already checkered.
Hit: “When I want to go even stronger and more aggressive in super muddy water, the Fire Craw-Orange Blade maximizes the pull factor. It’s a very early season pattern, particularly in Texas or any discolored southern reservoir. From January to mid-March, I rely heavily on this pattern for big mamma prespawn bass.”
dirty white: Pearl and white/shimmer belly strands are overlaid on a clear/black silicone backbone, creating a vivid baitfish pattern. A contrasting gold leaf activates like a strobe light in stained water environments.
Hit: “This one is for all those JackHammer fans who have begged us for a super visible gold leaf baitfish pattern for stained and dirty water. We’ve learned that white looks better on dark waters than chartreuse, just as a golden leaf offers a little more sparkle than silver on discolored lakes. Dirty White is a good sneaky pattern that really catches them in classic crankbait situations, often around the wood.”
gill ghost baby: A high gloss bronze leaf accents her muted pale skirt: combinations of natural orange, pumpkin green, and blue/purple glitter. The jig head features shimmering sunfish body patterns, including telltale black vertical bars.
Hit: “This might be my favorite blue gill pattern so far, just a really sweet looking ‘ghost’ gill color for clear water. You get the perfect subtle sparkle from the black chrome sheet, but not an overwhelming amount. I cast this pattern a ton around bream beds in clear reservoirs and grassy lakes. Pair it with a green squash trailer for the best bluegill imitation.”
blueback herring: Bright blue/watermelon trim along the loin is overlaid on a pearly white belly for a strikingly accurate blueback herring combination. Chrome blade adds to the flash effect of blueback scale arrangements.
Hit: “It seems that more and more lakes in the south are getting bluebacks, which makes this an increasingly valuable ChatterBait pattern. Fish him in Lake Murray, Lanier, or anywhere else with Spotted Bass. This is also a super powerful clearwater tarpon pattern, with hints of what I call ‘smurf blue’, which resembles the natural coloration of blueback herring.”
Today’s pre-eminent vibrating jig, the ChatterBait JackHammer is the result of a comprehensive project between Z-Man Fishing and Japanese lure manufacturer, EverGreen International, designed by MLF angler Brett Hite. Available in 3/8, ½, ¾ and 1-1/4 ounce sizes, the JackHammer ChatterBait features eighteen color-coordinated patterns compatible with a variety of ElaZtech® Trailers.
About Z-Man Fishing Products: A dynamic company based in Charleston, South Carolina, Z-Man Fishing Products has been fusing cutting-edge fishing tackle with technology for nearly three decades. Z-Man has long been one of the industry’s largest suppliers of silicone skirt material used in jigs, spinnerbaits, and other lures. Creator of the original ChatterBait®, Z-Man is also the renowned innovator of the ElaZtech 10X Tough soft baits, quickly becoming the most coveted baits in fresh and saltwater. Z-Man is one of the fastest growing lure brands in the world.